Simon Pegg Says ‘Star Trek 4’ Is Currently “In Prep”

Simon Pegg, Scotty in the Star Trek movies, has spent the last couple of weeks doing promotion for Mission: Impossible – Fallout, which opens this weekend. In one interview, he gave an update on the upcoming Star Trek 4 follow-up film to Star Trek Beyond.

Getting the band back together

Getting all the main actors for Star Trek together is not an easy task, as they are all very much in demand. Right now, Chris Pine is shooting the Wonder Woman sequel, Karl Urban is shooting his new superhero show The Boys, Zachary Quinto is on Broadway in The Boys in the Band, and John Cho is shooting The Grudge. Zoe Saldana has recently wrapped up her work for two Avatar sequels, but director James Cameron is planning on going back into production on two more and she is expected to return for Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3.

In addition, all the actors are attached to a number of projects in various stages of development including Chris Hemsworth, who is returning for Star Trek 4 and is currently shooting the next entry in the Men in Black franchise. As for Simon Pegg, after he wraps up promoting Mission: Impossible – Fallout, he has a number of projects he is working on as a producer for his new production company as well.

Paramount has yet to set an official release date for the film, but clearly, progress continues. However, and assuming things stay on track, best estimates now are for production on Star Trek 4 to begin in early 2019 for a 2020 release.

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All the pieces will be in place when Paramount makes an official announcement. Sounds like they’re deep into pre-production either way.

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July 24, 2018 10:07 am

AJinMoscow

It’s great that the movie iteration of Trek (“JJTrek”) is now not the only game in town.

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July 24, 2018 10:10 am

Shadowknight1

The more Trek the better! While Beyond would’ve been okay as a conclusion to this crew’s story, the promise of the continuing voyages of the Starship Enterprise is too hard to not imagine what happens next.

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July 24, 2018 9:24 pm

Danpaine

Personally I don’t think they’re even close yet, but looking forward to it. And I can’t believe they’re remaking The Grudge again so soon, which if I’m not mistaken was a remake of a remake to begin with, back in 2004. Keep it original, Hollywood…

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July 24, 2018 10:10 am

Phil

Sticking to a 2021 release year. Won’t hazard a guess as to early or late 2021. All this assumes Paramount gives this an actual thumbs up anytime soon. For what’s been announced so far, Paramount doesn’t have a lot of cash invested as of yet. I’ll take Quinto over Pegg as a more credible source for crystal ball gazing any day of the week.

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July 24, 2018 10:31 am

Curious Cadet

“Prep” ≠ “pre-production”

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July 24, 2018 10:18 am

Afterburn

In this case i think it does. From his comments it sounds like a script is ready (or close) and they’re starting to scout locations, schedule studio space, design sets, and getting actors’ availability synched up.

That’s pretty much the definition of or pre-production.

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July 24, 2018 11:05 am

Phil

That’s a helluva lot to divine from ‘As far as I know, we are pushing ahead. We are in prep, I think…’. Paramount hasn’t spent any appreciable money on this, so far. If we are going to drag these comments to the ridiculous extreme, technically we were in pre-production back when JJ said there would be another movie when Beyond was getting ready to hit the big screen. Don’t forget, Quinto was still fence sitting this production as of a couple days ago…

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July 24, 2018 1:05 pm

Afterburn

Convenient of you to leave out the rest of the specific quote:

“As far as I know, we are pushing ahead. We are in prep, I think, for it. But, there is so much to do before we start shooting, like making sure everybody is available.”

If they’ve started scheduling, have signed a director, and have moved into casting, I’d say that is a strong sign they are in pre-production.

Definitive? Confirmation? No. But a strong sign.

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July 24, 2018 2:42 pm

Tiger2

Either way it looks like the film is happening. Could something happen to detour it, sure. But I mean if you are literally casting other actors and publicly announcing it, then I’m not sure how Pegg is wrong with his comments. That’s what prep means.

Its like some people are expecting Paramount to just change their mind or something. They wouldn’t be hiring directors and offering roles to actors if they didn’t want to make the film.

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July 24, 2018 3:05 pm

Phil

@Tiger2 Yeah, actually, experience suggests that Paramount might change their mind. Who was originally supposed to direct Trek 3? Beyond wasn’t the story to be told, either. As a sidebar, it’ll be interesting to see how much of that script makes it into Trek IV. Remember how everyone kept telling us everything was fine in the runup to STID, until it wasn’t? Until Paramount has an FX house under contract and are building sets, it’s prudent to remember that ‘in development’ can last a long, long time.

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July 24, 2018 4:10 pm

Gary 8.5

When Pegg was announced as one of the writers of Beyond,
There were people here who thought it was just a publicity stunt and Beyond would never get made. but it was made.
Just as we will also have a fourth film in the Kelvinverse.

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July 24, 2018 8:16 pm

Phil

@ Afterburn. It wasn’t relevant to the point. Someone in Brad Pitts agents office gets a phone call from time to time asking if he’s still interested in the WWZ sequel. That doesn’t mean extras are being fitted for zombie costumes. That’s all we have with Trek so far, and the studio telling us they will make more Trek, in the future. When (recently almost insolvent) Paramount starts to pony up multiple millions for this project, then there’s reason to get excited. CBS has coughed up more info about Short Treks in the last week then we have from Paramount in the last month. That should tell you something about what’s driving the franchise at the moment.

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July 24, 2018 3:58 pm

Afterburn

I’m not sure why you’re arguing this. You omitted the part of the quote that heavily implied they’ve started scheduling actors. That’s relevant to my opinion that the film is likely in pre-production.

It was a minor retort to the OP’s opinion that “prep” doesn’t mean pre-production.

Keep arguing if you want but it doesn’t change my well-reasoned opinion.

As for CBS, that’s a bad comparison: the shorts are filming now and airing in the next 4 months, the new season is halfway through production, likely airing in 6.

Whereas even if the film is in pre-production right now, it won’t start shooting until 2019, and won’t be in theaters for another year and a half at the soonest (two full years from now). Studios don’t usually talk officially about their productions this far out, not officially.

They did announce a director.

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July 24, 2018 4:10 pm

Curious Cadet

From his comments it sounds like a script is ready (or close) and they’re starting to scout locations, schedule studio space, design sets, and getting actors’ availability synched up. That’s pretty much the definition of or pre-production. –Afterburn Pre-Production is a very specific, well defined part of the filmmaking process. It means they have a green light from the studio, it means they have all the necessary pieces in place like the principal cast, and most importantly it means they have a working budget and they start spending money toward the goal of building sets and making costumes. Paramount has not green light the production as far as I’m aware, so at most they are budgeting based on locations in the event there is a green light, so they know what is going on and how much it’s likely to cost. It would be foolish to green-light a production if the studio didn’t know whether the key cast members were available — a key part of Pegg’s statement — and what schedule they’d be budgeting for, or what part of the world they’re producing it in. These are all things that must be worked out before Pre-Production can begin. When was it reported that they are specifically designing sets, and scouting locations? Because all of that costs money, which as far as I know, they studio has not greenlit to begin spending. At present they are in what appears to be a development/exploratory phase. If all the pieces fit into… Read more »

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July 25, 2018 6:47 pm

Ahmed

Some of the rumors floating around:

A female villain, a new female hero (most likely TWD’s Danai Gurira)
Production being in early 2019, London and Atlanta are possible filming locations.

The Danai Gurira’s part is the only news that has been reported by the mainstream media.

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July 24, 2018 11:14 am

FrostUK

Who is writing this one? Pegg?

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July 24, 2018 11:44 am

Mirror Galt

The trades reported it’s the Mormon duo Payne & McKay.

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July 24, 2018 12:43 pm

Mirror Galt

If anyone is thinking bigoted thoughts, remember Orson Scott Card is also a Mormon, last I heard.

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July 24, 2018 12:47 pm

Mirror Galt

Also Glen A. Larson and Gary Kurtz.

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July 24, 2018 12:50 pm

Afterburn

Orson Scott Card is a pretty terrible person but im still not sure why the writers being Mormon has to do with anything.

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July 24, 2018 2:50 pm

Phil

Basically, some variation on the story Bad Robot was dropping hints about in the days leading up to Beyonds release…twenty four months ago. Pegg was teasing around a while back about writing a script, and later admitted he misspoke.

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July 24, 2018 1:08 pm

Ahmed

@Mirror Galt,

J.D. Payne & Patrick McKay are among the unluckiest scriptwriters in Hollywood. They were involved with lot of projects & wrote many scripts that never made it out of production hell from the original Star Trek 3 script, Boilerplate, Deadliest Warrior, Goliath, Micronauts, Law Zero, Flash Gordon, ‘A People’s History Of The Vampire Uprising’ and Hellfire.

The most promising movies for them to see the light are ‘Jungle Cruise’ & ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’.

From reading some reviews of their unproduced scripts, they seem to have a talent but no luck so far. In December last year Seth Macfarlane announced that their unproduced script ‘Escape’ made it to the 2017 Blacklist.

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July 24, 2018 3:20 pm

Sadiq

sorry, my english is not so great, what is a moron duo?

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July 25, 2018 11:43 pm

DataMat

At least it’s a mystery. I’ve no idea what they plan to do really.

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July 24, 2018 2:21 pm

DataMat

I just hope this isn’t a movie about, you know, saving alligators or penguins ..

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July 24, 2018 2:22 pm

Tiger2

Luckily the third one wasn’t about searching for someone to bring them back to life (but we did get a destroyed Enterprise lol).

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July 24, 2018 3:10 pm

Corndog

It’s not Star Trek 4. That was released in 1986. This is Star Trek 14.

The movie from 1986 was actually titled “Star Trek IV” with roman numerals.

This is a placeholder name for the 4th Kelvin-universe movie.

The first Kelvin-universe movie in 2009 was titled simply Star Trek. Therefore the Hollywood press (not just TrekMovie) is calling this “Star Trek 4” for the time being. Note the arabic numeral which also distinguishes it from the 1986 movie.

No one who pays any attention to Trek and/or the movie industry would be confused, it’s 2018 not 1986.

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July 24, 2018 3:46 pm

DeanH

Haha to satisfy everyone, why not call this one Star Trek X4!! The 2009 movie is Star Trek X1, etc.

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July 25, 2018 6:48 am

Cygnus-X1

DeanH

Calling it off would satisfy me.

Hey! I’ll be here all week!

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July 28, 2018 12:01 pm

Ahmed

@Corndog,

Agree. I mentioned in a comment that is still in moderation that everyone is referring to the upcoming Bond movie as Bond 25. They didn’t rest the clock for Daniel Craig’s movies and call the new one Bond 5.

Same case with the Terminator movies; where the upcoming movie is called Terminator 6 even though the producers said that the movie will ignore the events in all Terminator movies that came after T2.

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July 25, 2018 7:23 am

DRB

I’ve missed these guys. Watching STD for the brief time I stuck with it was tedious.

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July 24, 2018 6:12 pm

dprescott

Make or break time I think. Beyond under performed. If this does too then it’s back to the drawing board.

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July 25, 2018 5:52 am

ryan

Im sorry but who made Simon Pegg the god of Star Trek? As a Trekkie Im sick of the fake Scotty already.

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July 25, 2018 8:47 am

Phil

As these are fictional characters, technically they are all fake.

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July 25, 2018 9:02 am

ML31

The best one can glean from this is that it is looking positive. I’m at the point where I am pretty sure it’s happening eventually. If that means Clarkson is still the director and they are still going to go with the Hemsworth story or anything else is still up in the air. But I think we will see a 4th KU movie. Which I am looking forward to.

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July 25, 2018 9:46 am

Trellium G

Meh… So when is Discovery returning?

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July 25, 2018 11:04 am

Ahmed

5779 AM

2019 AD

1440 AH

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July 25, 2018 12:29 pm

I Khan Believe it's Not Butter

Things for Star Trek are looking up.
TV, movies and short featurettes.
While Disney puts it’s final nails into the Star Wars coffin, it’s time for Star Trek to assume it’s rightful place as the better space adventure.
So lets be smart and supportive to all entries and hope everyone involved from Paramount to CBS plays their cards correctly.
Star Trek Beyond wasn’t a bad film and STD could use some improvement (still not my cup of tea) but maybe some more of the right choices can be made by watching how the SW universe is fumbling and not make those kinds of mistakes.

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July 25, 2018 3:26 pm

tony

sorry, there is nothing wrong with TLJ.
and i hear ‘solo’ is okay too.

i really don’t think ST will ever do the kind of business SW still does at the box office.

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July 26, 2018 7:49 am

nasty man

you mean like Solo which has only just made it to ST09s ww box office and will end up almost 100m less than STID? (as well as less domestically than either)

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July 27, 2018 2:42 am

albatrosity

There is no way they’re filming in ’19! I think with schedules that full, they’d be lucky to pin down a date in 2020. 2019 is five months away.